How RTL Equipment Built a More Controlled, Scalable Financial Operation with Flyntlok and Sage Intacct

Summary

As RTL Equipment expanded its locations, equipment lines, transaction volume, and operational complexity, the company needed more than a basic accounting system and spreadsheets could provide.

The business had grown into a multi-location equipment dealership managing machine sales, rentals, parts, service work orders, floorplan obligations, lender activity, and a growing inventory portfolio. For Controller Katie Stephens, that meant financial visibility could not lag behind operations.

RTL needed systems that could help the team understand what was happening across the business in real time, maintain tighter controls, reconcile inventory and accounting data with confidence, and support better decision-making as the dealership continued to grow.

With Flyntlok as its dealership management system (DMS) and Sage Intacct as its financial management system, RTL now operates with clearer visibility into machine sales, inventory, cash flow, and accounting activity — while maintaining the control and auditability its finance team requires.

For Katie, the value comes down to confidence.

“It makes me feel comfortable with the numbers that I’m passing on to management.”

The Challenge: Growth Created More Complexity Than Legacy Processes Could Support

Before 2022, RTL Equipment operated two locations in Iowa. That year, the company acquired two additional locations in Minnesota, added the Bobcat brand, expanded employee count, and began managing a significantly larger and more complex operation.

The business also continued to expand its equipment portfolio, adding aggregate lines including Terex Powerscreen and Terex EvoQuip, as well as expanding its Kobelco excavator line. The result was a larger, more diverse dealership with more transactions, more inventory, more reporting needs, and more moving parts across the business.

Before that growth, some processes were simple enough to manage manually. Katie described a time when the team could track inventory changes in a single spreadsheet and physically account for most machinery.

That was no longer possible.

With multiple locations, major equipment lines, attachments, rentals, sales, service work orders, and parts activity, RTL needed software to help the business see what was happening across the operation.

“We can’t put our hands on every single piece of machinery anymore,” Katie explained. “We need software to help us out with that.”

For a growing dealership, the question became bigger than accounting software preference.

RTL needed financial infrastructure that could support more complexity, stronger controls, and better reporting.

Katie summed it up clearly:

“If you want to go somewhere with your business and really understand what’s going on, you have to pay for it.”

The Solution: Best-in-Class Operations + Best-in-Class Accounting

RTL uses Flyntlok as its dealership management system and Sage Intacct as its accounting and financial management platform.

For Katie, keeping operations and accounting separate is not a weakness. It is a control advantage.

With Flyntlok managing dealership operations and Sage Intacct managing financials, RTL has clearer separation between operational users and sensitive accounting data. Sales teams can work inside Flyntlok without needing access to the accounting system. Accounting permissions, payables, financial controls, and reporting stay in Sage Intacct.

Katie also appreciates the resilience of having two best-in-class systems. If one system is unavailable, the other still allows work to continue.

“If Flyntlok is down, I can still work in Intacct. If Intacct goes down, I can still work in Flyntlok.”

The separation also helps Katie maintain tighter financial controls. In QuickBooks, transactions could be deleted, reversed, or changed more easily. Sage Intacct’s control structure creates more confidence in the integrity of the data.

“Intacct has the controls that allow you to feel comfortable with the data that you’re getting.”

Better Controls Before Transactions Hit the General Ledger

One of the most important parts of RTL’s process is the way Katie reviews invoices before syncing them from Flyntlok into Sage Intacct.

While invoice syncing can be automated, Katie intentionally keeps the process manual for now because she wants to review each transaction before it posts.

That review gives her the opportunity to catch issues early, including:

• Incorrect internal charges
• Transactions booked to the wrong bucket
• Customer payment issues
• Equipment costs that need review
• Sales orders that should be corrected before posting
• Potential customer service issues, such as duplicate credit card payments

For Katie, this is not just accounting control. It is operational control.

“It’s easier to question it one or two days after it’s been closed than a month later.”

She has also set a clear internal expectation: once something has been closed in Flyntlok, the team has 24 hours before it is synced into Sage Intacct. After that, it is posted.

That 24-hour window gives RTL time to catch mistakes while still keeping the accounting process moving.

Cleaner Transaction Flow from Flyntlok to Sage Intacct

One of the biggest improvements Katie noticed after moving from QuickBooks to Sage Intacct was the way transactions flow from Flyntlok.

In QuickBooks, revenue, cost, and payment activity could come through as separate journal entries. That increased transaction volume and made it harder to trace a full invoice picture.

With Sage Intacct, Katie can look up an invoice and see the related revenue, cost, inventory impact, and payment information together.

That changed the way she reviews and trusts the data.

“I’m not searching for three different transactions. I’m searching for one.”

This cleaner structure reduces friction, improves traceability, and helps Katie confirm that revenue, cost, inventory, and payment activity are all flowing correctly.

Inventory Visibility That Protects the Business

For RTL, inventory is one of the biggest financial drivers in the business.

Katie described inventory management as one of the greatest areas of value RTL receives from Flyntlok. The inventory-per-machine page and balance sheet snippet give both finance and sales leaders a real-time view of where the business stands on each machine.

That visibility helps answer critical questions:

• What machine was sold?
• What cash is coming in?
• Which lender needs to be paid off?
• What costs are sitting against this unit?
• Where are we financially on this machine?
• Is this machine still profitable?

Katie and the sales managers use this information frequently to understand machine-level financial position.

“That real-time balance sheet is amazing.”

Flyntlok has also helped RTL strengthen inventory controls.

Early in its Flyntlok journey, RTL discovered that a machine had been deleted from inventory and the issue was not caught for several months. In response, RTL worked with Flyntlok to create an alert whenever a machine is deleted.

Now Katie receives an email within minutes any time a machine is removed from inventory. She can immediately review the deletion, confirm whether it is valid, and move on.

That control helps prevent small operational changes from becoming large reconciliation problems later.

Reconciliation That Builds Confidence

Katie reconciles every balance sheet account every month.

While some might see that as overkill, she sees it as necessary discipline. It prevents year-end surprises and gives her confidence in the numbers she sends to management.

She also reconciles equipment inventory every month, comparing what Flyntlok shows against what the accounting system shows.

If the numbers do not tie to zero, she investigates until she finds the answer.

That level of rigor is easier when operational and accounting data are structured well and when the team can trust how information is moving between systems.

“Accounting always has an answer. There’s always an answer at the end.”

Better Reporting for a Multi-Location Business

Sage Intacct has also improved RTL’s ability to report by location.

While Katie acknowledged that RTL is still learning the full power of Sage Intacct’s dimensional reporting, location-based reporting is already easier than it was in QuickBooks.

That matters for a business operating across multiple branches and managing different equipment lines, revenue streams, and financial obligations.

With stronger reporting flexibility, Katie can run location-specific reports more easily and use those reports to support reconciliation, analysis, and management visibility.

The value is not simply having more reports. It is being able to ask better questions of the business and get cleaner answers.

The Importance of Doing the Setup Right

Katie emphasized one major lesson for any dealership moving into a more sophisticated accounting environment:

Take the time to clean up your data before implementation.

Before moving to Sage Intacct, Katie invested significant time understanding how Flyntlok data would flow into the accounting system. She cleaned up accounts, reviewed how OEM lines were mapped, and made sure sales were posting to the correct accounts.

That work was not easy. Katie was managing the implementation while continuing to run accounting, payroll, HR, cash management, and other responsibilities as a department of one.

But the work paid off.

“I don’t want garbage to come in because I’m just going to get garbage out.”

Her advice to other dealerships is simple: slow down at the beginning so the system works better later.

A Partnership Built on Responsiveness and Trust

RTL has been using Flyntlok since 2022, when both RTL and Flyntlok were at different stages of growth.

Katie described the relationship as one where both companies grew together.

In the early days, RTL worked closely with Flyntlok team members like Dylan and Tyler to answer questions, build reports, solve workflow challenges, and understand best practices.

That partnership continued through the Sage Intacct transition.

During the implementation, Katie recalled Tyler sitting with her on the phone as she synced transactions one at a time. That kind of hands-on support helped her build confidence in the new process.

For Katie, responsiveness is one of Flyntlok’s biggest differentiators.

“The responsiveness that we get from Flyntlok is unheard of in a support role.”

She noted that when RTL submits a support ticket today, someone is often looking at it within minutes. If the first person does not know the answer, they reassign it to someone who does.

That willingness to say “I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out” matters.

It builds trust.

Results

With Flyntlok and Sage Intacct, RTL has built a more controlled and scalable financial operation.

Key outcomes include:

Stronger financial control

RTL can separate operational access from accounting access, maintain tighter permissions, and rely on Sage Intacct’s controls to protect financial data.

Better inventory visibility

Flyntlok gives RTL real-time insight into machine sales, lender obligations, inventory status, and machine-level financial position.

Cleaner transaction traceability

Invoices synced from Flyntlok to Sage Intacct bring revenue, cost, inventory, and payment activity together, making it easier to review and reconcile transactions.

Faster issue detection

Katie can catch operational or accounting issues one or two days after a transaction closes instead of discovering them at month-end.

Improved reporting

Location-based reporting in Sage Intacct gives RTL stronger visibility into a growing, multi-location business.

Greater confidence in the numbers

Daily review, monthly reconciliation, and cleaner system integration give Katie more confidence in the financial information she shares with management.

A stronger software partnership

Flyntlok’s responsive support and willingness to collaborate helped RTL grow through operational complexity and a major accounting transition.

Final Takeaway

RTL Equipment’s story is not just about replacing QuickBooks or implementing a new accounting system.

It is about what happens when a dealership grows beyond manual processes, basic reporting, and disconnected visibility.

As RTL expanded locations, equipment lines, transaction volume, and financial complexity, the company needed systems that could scale with the business.

Flyntlok gives RTL the operational visibility to manage equipment sales, inventory, customer invoices, open orders, and dealership workflows in real time.

Sage Intacct gives RTL the accounting controls, reporting structure, and financial rigor needed to support growth.

Together, they help Katie and the RTL team run the business with more confidence.

Because for a growing dealership, the goal is not just to move faster.

The goal is to grow with control.

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